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(Semi-Dead?) Sapphire R9 270X - VRAM problem

Hello Alex, Apologies for the tardy response, work sometimes gets in the way With the testing that you have done I suspect that you have pretty much nailed the fact that the R9 has...
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AlexanderRoz

Posted 16 December 2018 - 02:27 PM

AlexanderRoz

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I'm rather embarrassed that I need help with this, given my IT Background (and CS), but I've run out of ideas on how to fix it (if it's even possible..)

One of my mates recently shot me a text explaining that his 270X is acting up. The screen would intermittently go black, and then go back to being functional again. He didn't think much of it, maybe a loose connection and left it at that. Couple days later, and graphics isn't being put out past the BIOS screen, and the first few seconds of Windows 7's start up animation, at which point it also hangs. I popped over to have a look, uninstalled his drivers using DDU, then reinstalled them, latest from Radeon (18.12.02 -- YY.MM.DD). No luck and I had a far few other things to do that week (his system works fine without the GPU in it.). Left the system with him. I picked everything up today to have another look, and brought it back to my place. Started the system, just to make sure it still wasn't working, and well, it wasn't. Additionally, I did try moving the card around in his system (between PCIe slots), which gave no results.

Given I know my system is functional, I put his GPU in mine, and mine in his system (GTX 760 was my card.) Again, I DDU'd both computers and tried without drivers, and with their respective (new) drivers. My system (with his card) initially didn't even get to the BIOS screen, then later decided to work to that point. His system (with my 760) worked fine.

I tried both of my OSes (KALI Linux and W10), both of which either stopped displaying output after the first second or two using his GPU. Ran some onboard diagnostics on my system. GPU passed the initial check (which for me was seeing if it could display a white screen -_-), then then abruptly failed "thorough" mode. Audio subsystem went nuts on my computer, warning me that it failed the test. I pulled this from the diagnostic log given to me.

I'm guessing that something has happened to his VRAM, but what those numbers mean is beyond me. (I thought maybe they were HEX -- as indicated by the 0x -- values, but his GPU has 2GB of RAM, and even converting that to decimal is only 1.038GB, half of what I would expect them to be.) Of course, assuming they are indeed hex values, that means the GPU reported 4MB of VRAM. My (somewhat now dated) understanding was that the BIOS will initialize and use the basic functionality of a discrete card, but won't support the more advanced functionality (advanced 2D or 3D functionality for example.)

I haven't tried flashing the card (mostly because I've never done it before). The card doesn't seem to have any physical damage to it. A little bit of cat hair, but I've cleaned that out. All parts are from a manufacturer (ASUS -- 760 and Sapphire -- 270X), not some 3rd party site that sells knockoffs.

At this point, I'm reasonably sure that his GPU is dead, and ought to be replaced. However, I'm looking for a sanity check (making sure I haven't overlooked/forgotten anything here.)

Do you guys have any suggestions on possible solutions?

Side Note: One fan will spin on startup, and then stops. It (might?) be related, but it isn't running into heat problems.

phillpower2

Posted 17 December 2018 - 01:07 PM

phillpower2

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Hello Alex,

Apologies for the tardy response, work sometimes gets in the way

With the testing that you have done I suspect that you have pretty much nailed the fact that the R9 has expired, could be down to nothing more than wear and tear but can I just mention that the CX 500W PSU may not have helped, the R9 is a pretty power hungry card and the CX range of Corsairs are not best suited for powering a high end GPU, Corsair do in fact only advise that they are for entry level school/office type computers, please see Corsair info here

New GPU and quality brand Gold efficiency rated PSU look to be in order I`m afraid.

AlexanderRoz

Posted 17 December 2018 - 04:02 PM

AlexanderRoz

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7 posts

Hi Phill,

No worries about the tardy response! (I wouldn't even consider it late! Can't complain about help that is being offered free of charge! I also understand that probably most people here have full time jobs as well.) I'm currently finishing up my final exams myself (in CS), so I feel the pain. (I needed a distraction, so I've been working on and off on the GPU.)

I'll pass on the note about getting a new PSU of higher quality, and replacing the GPU with something more current potentially. Thank-you for the link! I'm thinking about recommending a GTX 1050ti, as his gaming is more or less limited to Path of Exile and Factorio, and his monitor is 1080p. I've never seen him play any other game short of those two. Ironically, minus the GPU in his system, the description given by Corsair almost perfectly matches his system. He only usually gets time a couple hours every weekend to play a game. After that, it's report writing in Office .

As an aside (more or less), the community you guys have around here seems to be pretty solid, at least given the few forums threads I've read here in HW & Peripherals. Is there any limitations on what I can (or cannot) help with in this section (and the Dev Section, as I've got a couple years experience in C, Java, and SQL)? Any form of exam that is needed to pass before hand?

paws

Posted Yesterday, 02:50 AM

You are welcome to post responses in any of our forums here on G2G with the exception of the Virus and Spyware Removal forum (where special accreditation is required).

The forums are moderated and good quality responses with accurate, and helpful information presented in a readable and understandable way are highly valued by us here.

So please feel free to post where appropriate, but it's always a good idea to check the posting date of the question you are intending to respond to... some folks have a tendancy to respond to dormant topics that haven't been active for years!

Having a read of our site's Terms of Use is a good idea as it will provide a guide on how to avoid some pitfalls

AlexanderRoz

Posted Yesterday, 10:36 AM

AlexanderRoz

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Hi Paws,

I have actually given your Terms of Service a read through already. I didn't want to step on any toes by going directly to people tagged "Admin". However, there are a few formatting errors in the bottom of the Terms of Service. (Section 14, and 15, specifically. Text that should have hyper-linked (that isn't), and 1 spacing error. Anything that I've bolded below was something that wasn't right.

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